N Korea set to test third nuclear device

Updated
January 29, 2013 08:32:00

South Korea says its belligerent northern neighbour appears ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time. The prospect of a third North Korean nuclear test has even spooked China - the communist state's closest ally - which has begged Pyongyang to refrain from escalating the situation. There is also a fear that Kim Jong-un's regime has mastered the complex process of enrichment and will use a uranium device.

TONY EASTLEY: South Korea says its belligerent northern neighbour appears ready to conduct another nuclear test at any time.

The prospect of a third North Korean nuclear test has even spooked the communist state's closest ally, China, which has begged Pyongyang to refrain from escalating the situation.

There is also a fear that Kim Jong-un's regime could for the first time use a uranium device, signalling that the rogue state has mastered the complex process of enrichment.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports.

(Voice speaking into microphone and cheers)

MARK WILLACY: It's three cheers for the young general. Punching their assault rifles in the air, these North Korean soldiers also wave a banner reading "let's fight and sacrifice our lives for our Dear Supreme Leader, Kim Jong-un."

These troops are cogs in one of the world's largest standing armies and they know exactly who the enemy are.

(Kim Chol-ung speaking)

"I feel like riddling the bodies of the American and South Korean puppets with machine gun fire and making Washington and Seoul a sea of flames," says soldier Kim Chol-ung.

The regime in Pyongyang is incensed that the UN Security Council has tightened sanctions against it, after last month's long-range rocket launch.

North Korea had said the launch was merely part of its peaceful space program, but after the new sanctions were approved, Kim Jong-un's regime admitted that the rocket launch was part of a military program targeting its arch-enemy - the United States.

(Orchestral music)

And state television in Pyongyang has also launched a tirade against its neighbour to the south.

(North Korean news)

"If the puppet group of traitors takes a direct part in the UN sanctions, North Korea will take strong physical counter-measures against it," says the newsreader.

North Korea has now signalled it will push ahead with its third nuclear test, angry not only with the United States and South Korea, but also with its biggest ally, China, which voted with Pyongyang's arch-enemy in Washington to tighten UN sanctions.

To the south, in Seoul, the military brass believes Kim Jong-un could press the test button at any moment.

Another thing Washington, Seoul and Tokyo will be monitoring is whether North Korea uses a uranium device in any nuclear test.

Pyongyang's first two tests in 2006 and 2009 used plutonium, with experts estimating it has enough of the stuff to build between four and eight nuclear weapons.

But the North has boasted that it's begun enriching uranium, possibly giving it yet another way of developing a nuclear arsenal.